The Internet and other technological changes have brought about sweeping changes in communications and commerce. But just as improved communications media such as optical fiber have been unable to solve the problem of the xe2x80x9clast milexe2x80x9d of communications to a particular home, so have improved ways of placing merchandise orders been unable to solve the problem of the xe2x80x9clast milexe2x80x9d of merchandise delivery to a particular home. While overnight package delivery services have become commonplace in recent years (for example, Federal Express, United Parcel Service, and Airborne), these services have great difficulty delivering to individual homes. The occupant of the home is often not there (being at work, for example) and thus a carrier may have to visit the home two or more times to effect delivery. The occupant of the home will likely return home from work to find a note on the door indicating that the carrier tried to deliver a package but no one was home.
A related set of problems present themselves when a customer seeks to return mail-order merchandise. The return may be due to a variety of reasons, from incorrect size or color to dissatisfaction with the quality or function of the merchandise. The return can be a nuisance for the customer. Real or perceived difficulty of making returns prompts some would-be mail-order customers to forgo placing the mail order.
Still another problem is mail fraud. Many mail-order merchants face problems with fraudulent orders placed using stolen credit card numbers. The losses attributable to such orders are, of course, passed back to merchants (and through them to customers) through the commissions charged for processing payments for such orders.
A related but distinct concern is simply the delivery cost of the xe2x80x9clast milexe2x80x9d. A substantial part of the price charged by a carrier to deliver a package is due to the xe2x80x9clast milexe2x80x9d.
There is thus a great need for package storage and delivery systems which overcome the difficulties described above. Such a system would deal with the problem that customers are often not at home. Such a system would make returns easier and would reduce risk of credit card fraud. Such a system would be less expensive than existing systems for last-mile delivery.
Many individuals and companies have devoted time, energy, and ingenuity to these problems. The typical approach is to provide lockers which are geographically nearby to customers and which are intended to remove the need for the customer to be home when the carrier arrives. Prior-art locker systems include those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,215 for xe2x80x9cSecurity mailboxxe2x80x9d; U.S. Pat. No. 5,475,378 for xe2x80x9cElectronic access control mail box systemxe2x80x9d; U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,829 for xe2x80x9cElectric locker apparatus with automatic locker box designation devicexe2x80x9d; U.S. Pat. No. 5,074,135 for xe2x80x9cSystem for the use of lockers or the likexe2x80x9d; U.S. Pat. No. 4,894,717 for xe2x80x9cDelivered article storage control systemxe2x80x9d; U.S. Pat. No. 4,048,926 for xe2x80x9cSafexe2x80x9d; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,774,053 for xe2x80x9cStorage device for the delivery and pickup of goodsxe2x80x9d.
No prior art approach known to applicants herein succeeds in solving all of the problems discussed above.
A package storage and delivery system includes electronically controlled lockers disposed at or near customer locations. Each locker is unlocked by a courier, preferably by means of a short-range transceiver or transmitter carried on the courier""s person. The customer can unlock the locker and receive the delivered package. Cryptographically signed communications are employed along with nonvolatile usage logs to minimize the risk of loss of a package or fraud by courier or customer. The lockers may be stackable, permitting a delivery courier to add lockers in the event a customer receives too many deliveries to fit into a single locker. Each box has, of course, a physical location, and has associated with it an address code indicative of the physical location, for example by means of a human-readable or compressed representation of the precise latitude and longitude. A package delivered to such a box preferably bears the address code. A merchant can greatly reduce the risk of credit card fraud by requiring the use of such codes for the simple reason that a fraudulent transaction may be traced to a specific physical location.